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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Kroger passes on Cylviagate

The fearless crime-busting A.G. once again declines to press charges of official corruption, although it appears that four state employees have now been suspended over something they did with Gov. Retread's girlfriend. Nothing to see here, folks; go on about your business.

Well, it just goes to show that Kroger is in the tradition of American criminal prosecutorial screw ups....Albert Fall, then Secretary of the Interior, was convicted of a receiving a bribe that Thomas Dohenny was acquitted of giving...yet at least in that Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal, the US Attorney General did have the grace to indict both the alleged giver and the recipient. The AG at least did remember to fail to convict the multimillionaire oil man though

Kroger is really something else.

And one his minions is the front runner to become the US Attorney in Oregon....

Well the article is short on facts to support one since it doesn't exactly make any accusations. Since Mark Long, the long time DCBS director, has been placed on leave, presumably he asked some of his employees at the Energy Dept to see if they could get the new Gov's squeeze a job. They checked and the winning bidder said sure.

Now we could speculate about whether anyone asked Mark to try and do it but speculation is all it would be. Is hope that the new Guv would notice your helping his main squeeze and you get to keep your job enough to support criminal charges? I would hope so but as I said all this is speculation anyway.

What's really sickening is you can see Kroger is trying to spike his resume, ala Elliot Spitzer like, to make an eventual run for the governor's office. He is constantly drumming his populist credentials as fighting those demon corporations all the while promoting government thugs and scheisters. I wish the Multnomah county electorate were sane enough to be able to see this guy for what he really is - a supper power hungary, backroom stealer. Unfortunately, I have almost no faith in the sanity of Multnomah county voters who dominate the state's elections. Kitzhaber and Kulongoski are small time crooks compared to the likes of Kroger. Now that would be a KKK set: Kulongoski, Kitzhaber, and then Kroger. Might have to remove K from the alphabet in Oregon, forever thereafter.

PLus the fact that the girlfriend really has no skill set yet was able to get several govt contracts after her boyfirend interceded for her with the Dept of Energy. Now she gets to help him call shots as governor.

Not this should be a huge insult to anyone with talent who could actually help Oregon beyond generating PowerPoints and crying on camera, but I digress. Between Cylvia and Neil's boys calling shots, this state is screwed.

He lets the Mt. Hood doctoring of environmental pollution evidence pass with "nothing here, folks". He passes on Cylvia and Kitz's influence peddling.He passes on Sam's lying. These and other issues will be Kroger's downfall if he ever decides to run for any other higher office or even for Attorney General again. Such a "crime fighter"!

Some former prosecutors say that the Enron investigation suffered from a perennial problem at the Justice Department. When regulators fail to detect or prevent corporate malfeasance, prosecutors and investigators find themselves under pressure to pursue rich, powerful and resourceful suspects with complex charges that are difficult to explain to juries. Even if they win convictions, when the crisis blows over they're on the defensive for lacking sufficient evidence or acting too aggressively.

John Kroger, who oversaw one of the Enron indictments in question, has described a pressure-cooker atmosphere in which the Bush administration "was motivated to get some scalps quickly."

"The Bush team knew that if it failed to move aggressively on Enron, there would be a huge political price to pay," he wrote in his new book, "Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battle Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins and Enron Thieves."
Defense attorneys have seized on passages in Kroger's book to support their contentions. For example, unlike in other corporate fraud cases, Kroger wrote, he and other prosecutors didn't delve into the millions of company documents to prove their cases.

"The Enron business records were so voluminous and hard to decode we thought it could take years to determine what evidence was relevant," he wrote.

To all you folks who say Kroger's hopes are shot: Keep dreaming. He is following the AG-to-governor playbook.

1. Bust the businesses.
2. Play nice with with Democrat bureaucrats and staffers.
3. Watch the SEIU and AFSCME money fill your coffers.
4. Put you name on the ballot for governor as a (D), take a nap and wake up in the governor's mansion.

Garahe Wine is on point about the playbook, but it isn't limited to state Attorneys General with a "D" after their name on the ballot.

Tom Dewey from New York back when was the prime practicioner/

It isn't just limited to governorships, either. Look at a resume of Senator Chuck Grasley (Iowa). Though Garage is correct that it is usually governorships.

Long, long, long ago I had he misfortune of doing a presentation at a meeting off "NAAG", the National Association of Attorneys General, The running joke at that meeting was how many of the a incumbent state AGs, regardless of party, referred to their group as the "National Association of Almost Governors".

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 155
At this date last year: 241
Total run in 2015: 271
In 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269